The present disclosure relates generally to methods and systems for communicating supplemental telephonic entity data to a callee via data association with a Software-as-a-Service application.
Typical, current methods of identifying a caller to a callee during a telephone call disclose in a visual format the caller telephone number and, sometimes, the caller name. Although one may presume that both a caller telephone number and a caller name would be paired at all times, and presented together, the technical and financial hurdles for passing caller name information are far greater than for passing the caller telephone number.
When telephone companies transmit a call across the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), originating telephone companies commonly transmit the caller telephone number. Originating telephone companies do not, however, transmit the caller name, referred to as the CNAM. Telephone companies which receive calls from originating telephone companies can make up for the deficient data by sourcing CNAM information from one or more CNAM database providers. Such providers routinely charge a fee per lookup, and the lookup request adds latency to the call connection process because the receiving telephone companies must quickly source the information on a per-lookup basis prior to passing along a call to their customer. Such sourced data is also not controlled by the recipient of a call, as will be further explained herein.
Cellular telephone companies have existing latency concerns when receiving a call from an originating telephone company, in that communicating between a tower and a cellular phone is already subject to delays. Adding a lookup delay to the process of forwarding a call is one argument against cellular companies performing this step. Paying for a lookup is another argument against doing. Such companies also have a greater variety of network and device compatibility concerns than historic landline telephone companies, due to encryption, digital network protocols, devices with varying degrees of displays, calls crossing networks during roaming, etc.—all of which are relevant when needing a framework for the transmission and display of a caller name. And, there is no regulatory body requiring cellular telephone companies to provide CNAM information to its customers.
As a result of technical hurdles, financial costs, latency concerns, and the lack of a governing body requiring transmission of CNAM data, cellular telephone companies typically don't source and transmit CNAM data to their customers' devices.
There exists a current foundational problem in that a recipient of a call has no control over the CNAM data they receive and the data they might prefer to see (e.g. an unabbreviated name or a caller's married name) is not that which is provided. Even if a caller name is presented on a device, such as in the case of calls to landline or some Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) devices, the registered name in the CNAM database sourced by the callee's telephone company may be different than the familiar name by which the callee knows the person or business entity which is calling them. For example, a caller may have one's maiden name in a CNAM database when a callee knows the caller by their married name. Or, a company name may be abbreviated or converted to an unrecognizable acronym in a CNAM data field which often carries a maximum length of just 15 characters. Thus, even when a callee sees a caller name presented with an incoming call, the name may not be recognizable despite having familiarity with the entity.
Meanwhile, people or organizations today often create their own databases of contacts. Businesses, for example, maintain databases of their company's prospects and customers. These databases routinely contain telephone numbers for people or organizations, with an association between the telephone numbers and the person or organization names. Additional data is also commonly present in such databases, including but not limited to, “also known as” (AKA) names for a person or organization, addresses, contact history, order history, images and other descriptive information about the entity.
The creation of those databases of entity information often occurs within modern software delivery systems, including Software-As-A-Service (“SaaS”) platforms, whereby the application and the client are connected by a wide-area-network (“WAN”). Thousands or millions of distinct users of these hosted SaaS applications may connect to a SaaS platform and application.
When users of a SaaS application which manages business contacts receive a telephone call, some common current methods of identifying a caller involve a human manually asking a caller for their name or account number and searching for the computer record corresponding to the caller or seeing a caller ID phone number and searching for the applicable computer record. These methods take valuable time and provide a poor experience for the caller.
The problem of unknown caller name information is frustratingly magnified in business environments where SaaS applications are used to manage contacts. By the very nature of the fact that a relationship exists or may come to exist between two people or organizations that caused a user of a SaaS application to input data about the other entity, the likelihood of telephone contact between them is quite high. But, at the time of receiving a subsequent call from any such entity whose caller name and other information also exists within the data storage of a SaaS application, such stored data cannot be readily provided to callees using many landline or cellular telephones at the time of the call notification using current methods and systems.
Knowledge of differential, supplementary data could affect whether a callee wishes to accept or reject a call, and if such data is presented with the incoming call notification, there is limited time for a callee to make the decision to accept or reject the call. Knowledge of name information and other supplemental data could also affect the handling of a call after acceptance thereof (i.e. answering the call) and greatly improve the customer experience.
It is inefficient, tedious, and often impossible in a necessary period of time prior to, or even shortly after, accepting an incoming call for a user of a SaaS application to manually search for a caller ID phone number, wait for a user interface screen to load data, determine which of potentially-multiple search results is the desired record, select and view the desired record to identify the possibly-familiar entity, and read pertinent information about the entity.
Even if caller name information were presented to a callee via traditional CNAM data, which again is not controlled by the recipient of the call, and even if the CNAM could be recognized from the maximum 15 characters, there also exists the possibility that current visual methodologies are insufficient. Beyond addressing users who have visual impairments, callees who are driving or otherwise preoccupied may prefer an audible solution to identifying a caller's name. In fact, while driving, it may be unlawful to read the display of a phone but it is lawful to click the answer button on the steering wheel of a vehicle which maintains a synchronized connection to the telephone. Strangely, current methods presume that callees will be able to accept visual information but the general purpose of telephonic conversation is to exchange audible information so the presumption of a callee being available for visual communication may not also be accurate. Furthermore, audible communication of caller name information could assist callees with name pronunciation when first speaking to the caller.
Beyond the problems associated with missing or delayed caller name data, callees also experienced reduced efficiency, performance and service effects from not knowing other pertinent information about a caller which may be present in a SaaS application. However, such callee-owned, private information is not known by or transmitted by telephone companies, and modern integration methodologies and systems don't supply such data to traditional telephone devices.
Thus, there exists a need for methods or systems which, in a timely manner, communicate, often in an audible manner, differential or supplemental data to a callee via data association with a SaaS application. There exists a need for methods and systems which allow a callee to accept or reject a call based upon additional data presented quickly with the aid of computerization. There exists a need for methods and system which allow a callee to improve a call experience based upon supplementary data provided from a SaaS application. There exists a need for methods and systems which allow a callee's organization to input and control the data they receive to identify a caller, which is markedly different than what occurs when receiving standard caller ID information. Examples of new and useful methods and systems relevant to the needs existing in the field are discussed below.